“Most critical objectives and challenges of the Post2015 Development Agenda will certainly depend on
local action, community buy-in and local leadership,
well-coordinated at and with all levels of governance…
Accountable local governments can promote strong
local partnerships with all local stakeholders – civil
society, private sector, etc. Integrated and inclusive local
development planning that involves all stakeholders
is a key instrument to promoting ownership and the
integration of the three dimensions of development –
social, economic and environment.”
Helen Clark,
Chair of the United Nations Development Group
T O R I N O
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O C T O B E R
3rd WORLD FORUM
ON LOCAL ECONOMIC
DEvELOPMENt
The 3rd World Forum on Local Economic Development (LED), organized by the
Municipality and the Metropolitan City of Turin, the global network of United
Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and its Working Group on LED, through
the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI), the
Organization of Regions United (ORU FOGAR), the Brazilian Service of Support for
Micro and Small Enterprises (SEBRAE), the International Labour Organization (ILO)
and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will be celebrated on
13th-16th October 2015 in Turin (Italy).
Local Economic Development:
A Means to Address
Post-2015
Development
Agenda Challenges
In September 2015, in occasion of
the United Nations Sustainable
Development Summit, the new
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) will be adopted defining
the development framework of the
next 15 years. the 3rd World Forum
on LED will immediately follow this
Summit, providing a timely opportunity to explore experiences and
practices that can further present
LED as a means for implementing
the new development agenda at
the local level.
2015 is the target year for the Millennium
Development Goals’ (MDGs) achievement but also
when the agenda of the development framework
for the next 15 years will be launched.
The Post-2015 Development Agenda is the result of
an open and inclusive process that
“The future development agenda must boost
local economic development with a focus on
universal access to quality basic services, with
policies aimed at eliminating poverty and with
the creation of decent jobs.”
Josep Roig, UCLG Secretary General
has gathered local, regional and national governments, civil society organizations, academia, private sector and others to share their perspective
and advice on the contents, as well as on the means
for implementing the global development framework beyond 2015. Based on the findings of this
inclusive process, during which the importance of
the local level has been repeatedly emphasized,
and according to the lessons learned from working
towards achieving the MDGs, UN Member States
are expected to reach an agreement on the future
agenda and a set of SDGs. The latters are expected
to represent a universal agenda in order to tackle
the greatest challenges of our time.
LOCAL ECONOMIC DEvELOPMENt
LED is commonly understood as a strategically planned
and locally driven partnership approach aimed at
generating sustainable local economic opportunities
and quality of life gains through improved economic
governance.
Unlike conventional economic development, LED calls
for strategic and comprehensive territorial planning
that prioritizes social, cultural, and environmental
objectives and manages consumption and production
patterns. LED allows for a more geographically disperse
economic development and generates sustainable
economic opportunities for all people, including
women, indigenous people, youth, ethnic minorities
and vulnerable groups.
FORUM’S thEMAtIC LINES
Enter the ©All rights reserved by maurime58/flickr.com
thE POSt-2015 DEvELOPMENt AGENDA
thE hOSt CIty: tURIN
The City of Turin is an important business and cultural center and the capital city in the Northern Italian region
of Piedmont. As the first Italian capital city in 1861, it used to be a major European political center. Nowadays,
Turin is one of Italy’s main industrial hubs and Italy’s second export area. Over the years, the city has been able to
renovate itself becoming also a center of excellence in the field of research, technology and innovation. At the
international level, being part of several international networks and associations, the City of Turin has developed
various international cooperation projects and has promoted the exchange of best practices and experiences.
In synergy with the City of Milan that is only 140 km away, the City of Turin has launched the program of ExTo
-Expo 2015, which includes a wide programme of concerts, conventions, expositions, fairs and congresses to be
held all over 2015, in conjunction with the 2015 Universal Exposition in Milan.
ORGANIzERS
Out of the ongoing debate on the means of implementation of the future Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, LED stands out as a proven economic governance toolkit with
a large corpus of practical experiences from diverse country contexts geared toward tackling many of the
development concerns addressed by the MDGs and the future development agenda. Experience with the
MDGs showed that local governments are essential actors in providing basic service delivery and achieving
goals on poverty, hunger, water, sanitation, education, and health care.
The discussions of the 3rd World Forum on LED will explore how LED can represent a means of implementation
of the future SDGs and will delve three main thematic areas:
Regional competitiveness and innovation for more sustainable
and inclusive development.
AN ONGOING PROCESS
During the past two decades, innovation has been a critical driver of economic development and a
motor for generating employment in many developing and developed countries. Despites its significant
contributions to growth and the reduction of poverty, high levels of inequalities persist worldwide. The
Forum will strive to advance the debate on how inclusive innovation can be a mean to achieve inclusive
growth by creating products/services for and/or by those who have been excluded from the development
mainstream. In particular, local innovations will be analyzed as a main driver to LED because its unique
capability of addressing challenges, and offering rapid and targeted solutions to specific social, economic
and environmental issues in the local context.
Localizing employment generation. towards local inclusive
growth and jobs.
LED emphases on the links between economic growth and the creation of decent jobs through building on
the comparative advantages and the unique characteristics of localities and the establishment of an inclusive
policy process where stakeholders, from the formal and informal sectors, play a role in ensuring balanced and
sustainable development outcomes.
The benefits of better employment and livelihoods, in terms of both quantity and quality, are vital to success
and sustainability of the territory. It will be analyzed how LED can be useful integrating operational framework
to facilitate linkages between different technical areas in the employment and labor market fields.
towards sustainable urbanization. LED strategies for creating
positive urban rural linkages.
By recognizing the significance of establishing sustainable urban-rural linkages, LED promotes flows beyond
official urban boundaries, encourages the participation of different actors, and concedes to the need for an
overall governance architecture, which accommodates different interests.
The Forum will provide an opportunity to consider how the key to the success of the LED is therefore the clear
understanding of the role of the city and its surrounding areas. When taken beyond demographics, the city
is the local space at which all the above forces crystallize themselves and exert their impact on the citizenry.
The date of the Forum will coincide with the Universal Exhibition, Expo
Milano 2015, which will be held under the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy
for Life” embracing technology, innovation, culture, traditions, creativity aspects and how they relate to food and diet. This context will allow the Forum
to emphasize the strategic role of the territories as a sustainable resource to
improve nutrition of the population, and protect the environment from the
angles of sustainable competitiveness, employment generation and more
specifically from tremendously increasing requirements of urbanization.
1st World Forum on Local
Economic Development
2nd World Forum on Local
Economic Development
5-7 October 2011, Seville, Spain
thematic Focus: “Planning, Economy and Local
Governance: new perspectives for times of change”
Organizers: FAMSI, UNDP and Andalusia
Employment Service.
29 October-1 November 2013, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
thematic Focus: “Dialogue between territories:
other views of local economic development”
Organizers: Itaipu Binacional- PTI, SEBRAE, FAMSI,
UCLG, ORU FOGAR and UNDP.
The 1st Forum was the culmination of a fruitful
collaboration between decentralized cooperation
networks and Local Development Agencies. The
aim of this Forum was to create an active platform
dedicated to the study, reflection, sharing of
experiences and the design of local development
strategies around the world.
It provided the opportunity to present the territorial
experiences on how to fill the gap between the
contextualization of the economic development
and its practical application for sustainable human
development and counted on the participation of over
1,300 representatives and delegates from 47 countries,
representing different local development actors.
The 2nd Forum brought together representatives
of local, regional and national governments,
representatives of multilateral organizations,
academia, and institutions of international
cooperation, as well as social and economic actors,
including networks of enterprises, from 67 countries
from diverse regions of the world. The conclusions
focused, in a context of global economic crisis,
on the instruments for creating public-private
partnerships at the local level, in particularly
by facilitating decentralization policies and the
interaction between the public sector, civil society
and the private sector.
Local Economic Development: A Means to Address Post-2015 Development Agenda Challenges
PARtICIPANtS
The Forum is expected to gather national and local authorities, academia, enterprises, institutions
that promote and support local development, private sector and international organizations
coming from the five continents, all while ensuring a territorial, social and gender balance.
PROCESS
Executive Committee
Composed of the institutions that promote and organize the event, the Executive Committee is
in charge to define the strategic lines of the Forum and its process. The Executive Committee is
composed by the Municipality and Metropolitan City of Turin, UCLG and its Working Group on LED,
through FAMSI, ORU FOGAR, SEBRAE, ILO and UNDP.
Organizing Partners
The Organizing Partners represent all institutions in interested in elaborating the Forum’s technical
contents and elaborating its conceptual frameworks. An Organizing Partner can be a single
organization participating in the event, or it can lead an entire session/panel of the Forum, as well
as an entire component or sub-component of the Forum, according to the thematic lines to be
addressed by the Forum and at its own cost.
Scientific Committee
The key function of the SC is to orient and guide the process towards the celebration of the 3rd
World Forum of LED. The SC will encourage discussion, debate and consideration of a wide variety
of views and opinions in relation to the LED approach and will aim at fostering an alliance between
academic institutions focusing on LED as a means of implementing the SDGs of the Post-2015
Development Agenda.
ROADMAP tOWARDS
tURIN 2015
In preparation for 2015 Turin, the LED approach was and will be discussed
during several regional, national and international events,
organized by different institutions. A non-exhaustive list includes:
7th World Urban Forum
Date: 5-11 April 2014, Venue: Medellin, Colombia.
Workshop in the framework of the UCLG meeting on “Urban-Rural Policies for
Economic Development”
Date: 24-27 September 2014, Venue: Chefchaouen, Marocco
Mediterranean Economic Week
Date: 5-8 November 2014, Venue: Marseille, France
3rd National Meeting of Development Agents in Brazil
Date: 18 November 2014, Venue: Recife, Brazil
Meeting of the UCLG Working Group on LED during the UCLG World Council
Date: 25 November 2014, Venue: Haikou, China
Advancing the dialogue on Local Economic Development
Date: 2 December 2014, Venue: Brussels, Belgium
WAyS tO ENGAGE
The Forum intends to provide an open space for dialogue and participation for those actors who
want to contribute to the debate on LED as a means to address Post-2015 Development Agenda
challenges during the 3rd World Forum. So, a call is extended to institutions, governments, and
representatives from academia, civil society and entrepreneurs who have already participated to
this process during the past two editions of the event, as well as others interested in the topic and
who wish to participate in the 2015 Forum.
Forum on south-south and triangular cooperation and urban-rural policies for the
promotion of decent work in intermediary cities
Date: 29-30 January 2015, Venue: Pasto, Colombia
9th International Public Markets Conference in Barcelona
Date: 26-28 March 2015, Venue: Barcelona, Spain
To join the process and contribute to the debate, you can participate by sharing your experience
and perspective in events and online consultations, organized in the run-up towards the Forum,
you can directly take part at the sessions of the Forum, as well as organize workshops, side-events
or trainings in the framework of the event.
World Social Forum
Date: 24-28 March 2015, Venue: Tunis, Tunisia
For further information, please visit and/or contact:
Latin America and Caribbean Forum on territorial Economic Development
Date: 18-19 May 2015, Venue: Quito, Ecuador
www.ledforumtorino2015.org
WorldForumonLED
Commonwealth local government summit 2015
Date: 16-19 June 2015, Venue: Gaborone, Botswana
@WorldLEDForum
forum2015@comune.torino.it | info.art@undp.org
4th National Meeting of Development Agents in Brazil
Date: tbc, Venue: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Forum’s process is dynamic and participative
1st National Meeting on Local Economic Development
Date: September 2015, Venue: Recife, Brazil
General Assembly of Organisation of Regions United (ORU FOGAR)
Date: 23-25 September 2015, Venue: Andalusia, Spain
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?
Taking part in events
prior to the Forum
Contributing to
the online debate
Participating in workshops
and conferences
during the Forum
Organizing workshops,
trainings, side events in the
framework of the Forum
Institutions represented in the last editions of the World Forum on LED
International Organizations and Development
Agencies
Andalusian International Development
Cooperation (AACID)
Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC)
Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES)
Committee of Regions, European Union
European Commission, European Union
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
French Agency for Development (AFD)
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
Joint Migration and Development Initiative (JMDI)
Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN)
Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD)
Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI)
Spanish Agency for International Development
Cooperation (AECID)
UN Women
United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
United Nations Volunteers (UNV)
Universities & Research centers
Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB),
Spain
Bolivian Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies
(CEBEM), Bolivia
Business and Economics Institute (ISAE/ FGV), Brazil
Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR),
Brazil
Federal University of Latin American Integration
(UNILA), Brazil
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul National,
Brazil
Higher Institute on Territorial Systems of Innovation
(SiTI), Italy
Latin American Center for Rural Development
(RIMISP)
National University of Misiones (UNAM), Argentina
National University of Quilmes, Argentina
National University of the East, Paraguay
North Catholic University Foundation, Colombia
Pablo de Olavide University (UPO), Spain
Saint Louis University, Senegal
University of Florence, Italy
National Governments
Government of Italy
Ministry for Local Government and Rural
Development, Ghana
Ministry of Agrarian Development, Brazil
Ministry of Agriculture, Lebanon
Ministry of Economy Planning and Territorial
Management, Cameroon
Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development,
Dominican Republic
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Spain
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Argentina
Ministry of Industries, Trade and Mines,
Government of Cordoba, Argentina
Ministry of Industry, Argentina
Ministry of Interior, Morocco
Ministry of Labour and Immigration, Spain
Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security,
Argentina
Ministry of State Administration of Mozambique
Ministry of State for Local Affairs of Albania
Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization,
Mauritania
Ministry of Tourism, Paraguay
National Directorate of Promotion of Rural
Development (DNPDR), Mozambique
Presidency of Brazil
Technical Secretariat for International Cooperation
(SETECI), Ecuador
Local and Regional Governments and their
associations
Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and
Provinces (FAMP), Spain
Autonomous Provincial Government of El Oro,
Ecuador
Barcelona Provincial Council (BPC), Spain
Basque Government, Spain
City of Prince George, Canada
Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF)
Fakfak District, West Papua, Indonesia
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
Forum of Local Authorities for Social Inclusion and
Participatory Democracy (FAL Network)
Government of Catalonia, Spain
Government of the Junta de Andalucía, Spain
Latin America Organization of Intermediate
Governments (OLAGI)
Municipal Government of La Habana Vieja, Cuba
Municipality of Belladere, Haiti
Municipality of Chefchaouen, Morocco
Municipality of Cobija, Bolivia
Municipality of Dakar, Senegal
Municipality of Geneva, Switzerland
Municipality of Hebron, Palestinian Territories
Municipality of La Paz, Bolivia
Municipality of Padilla, Bolivia
Municipality of Río Negro, Uruguay
Municipality of Rivera, Uruguay
Municipality of São José dos Campos, Brazil
Municipality of Seville, Spain
Municipality of Tarragona, Spain
Municipality of the Hague, Netherlands
National Federation of Departments, Colombia
Province of Milan, Italy
Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, Basque Country,
Spain
Provincial Council of Huelva, Spain
Provincial Council of Jaen, Spain
Provincial Fund of Milan for International
Cooperation, Italy
Region of Cuzco, Peru
Regional Ministry for Employment - Junta de
Andalucía, Spain
Seville County Council, Spain
South African Local Government Association
(SALGA), South Africa
Toyama City, Japan
Local Economic Development Agencies,
cooperatives and others
Agency for Economic Development of the City of
Córdoba (ADEC), Argentina
Association of Regional Development Agencies
(EURADA)
Cooperative of Environmental Agents of Foz do
Iguaçu (COAAFI), Brazil
ERVET Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Extremeño Local Fund for Development
Cooperation (FELCODE), Spain
GARAPEN, Spain
Hambantota District Chamber Of Commerce, Sri
Lanka
International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)
International Women’s Coffee Alliance
Local Economic Development Agency in Vlore
(AULEDA), Albania
Local Economic Development Network of Africa
(LEDNA)
Locallis, Mexico
National Popular Finance Corporation, Ecuador
Network of Local Development Agencies of
Uruguay (RADEL), Uruguay
North Local Economic Development Agency,
Lebanon
Paraguayan Industrial Union (UIP), Paraguay
Paraná Industries Federation (FIEP), Brazil
Territorial Economic Development Agency of
Dajabón (ADETDA), Dominican Republic
Private Sector and foundations
Business for Peace Foundation (BfPF)
Eletrobras, Brazil
International Network for SMEs (INSME)
Itaipu Binacional, Brazil
Petrobrás, Brazil
PTI, Brazil
Votorantim Institute, Brazil
T O R I N O
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@WorldLEDForum
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